Mike is a veteran of the New Hampshire public school system and has worked in grades 1-12. He has a Master's of Education specializing in Social Studies.
Sometimes when you get into an argument with a sibling on one day, it's because of something that happened days before. And sometimes it's not even one thing, it's a whole bunch of different things that built up over time. Well World War II, which lasted from 1939-1945, was kind of like this. Let's take a look at some of the causes of World War II.
One of the main causes of World War II was the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I. This treaty forced Germany to take full responsibility for World War I. This meant they had to pay for every country's costs during the war, as well as give up valuable land. Since they didn't have the money, they couldn't pay the debt they owed. Debt is when you owe someone else, or a group, money.
Another thing that happened in the world was the Great Depression. This was a 10-year economic crisis that started in 1929. It resulted in a shortage of money, resources and jobs. Countries, like Germany, suffered more than others because they were already in debt.
One way to create jobs was to expand the military and Germany did this. Spain, Italy and Japan also used this crisis to defend building up their armies. These countries were proud of their armies and became eager to find excuses to use them in the pursuit of more resources.
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Since most Germans didn't feel it was fair to be blamed for World War I, they became desperate. It was then they turned to a man named Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler promised to make Germany great again, and blamed various groups of people both inside and outside of Germany for the problems the country faced.
After Adolf Hitler was elected, his Nazi party took over the country by force. He became the ruler of Germany and Germans who opposed him, or tried to alert the people of these actions, were murdered. During the war, the Nazi party also murdered people based on their race or religion. These killings are known as the Holocaust.
The political views of Germany and other countries also furthered a coming war. The Nazi party practiced a political idea called fascism. Fascism is when a political group outlaws different views from their own and has complete control of a nation. Germany created alliances with other fascist governments, like Spain, Italy and Japan. All of these countries wanted to invade other countries to take control of their resources, in the hopes of becoming more powerful. And they did! Japan invaded Manchuria and China. Italy invaded Ethiopia. Germany invaded Austria and Czechoslovakia.
You know how sometimes after a big fight, you don't want to fight again so you just agree to things even if they are wrong. Well, this also happened leading up to World War II. France and England, who did not want to fight another war with Germany, told Hitler he could keep the land he invaded if he promised to stop military invasions. This was called appeasement, or making an agreement with a dictator to avoid conflict. While Hitler agreed, he still invaded Poland and France. The invasion of Poland started World War II.
There are several things that lead up to World War II.
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